Work was going surprisingly well this morning and by noonish, I was where I’d expected to be around 3:00. It was a gorgeous day, the first in about a week, and the last in about a week, so it was hard to stay focused. I decided to go hiking in an area that John recommended and thought about having lunch first, to have something to walk off.

The eternal optimist, I Googled ‘santa fe falafel’ and got a link for Cleopatra’s Cafe, an Egyptian/Mediterranean restaurant with two locations, one of which, on Cerrillos, was barely a detour from my destination!

Off I went and found the cafe in a little mall downtown. You order at a counter, but the server brings your food to the table on real china, not like a food court at all. I ordered the ‘Moses’ platter, with two (actually three) Egyptian-style falafel balls, chicken, garlic sauce, hummus, salad, and pita, for just under $12. Right now, $12 feels like a lot of money since I’m still coming off the high of my Mexico budget, but I will say before before I get into details that if I was going to spend $12 on a meal on this trip, I bought the right one!!!

Clockwise from the top left, we have salad with lemon vinaigrette and feta, marinated chicken, falafel (both covered with garlic sauce and paprika), and hummus with olive oil and more paprika.

Greek (thick/pocketless) pita.

Egyptian falafel is made with fava beans and is bright green!

Oh!

I won’t say this is anywhere near the top best Mediterranean meal I’ve ever had, but Cleopatra’s was an oasis in the desert and there is a very good chance I’ll be eating here again before I leave! I do have to say I’ve never had Egyptian food, so the seasonings were not as familiar to me as Greek or, my favourite, Lebanese. Cleopatra’s borrows from all these cuisines, though, so the salad, hummus, and garlic sauce were all as expected and pitch perfect.

The falafel were interesting. I actually had a choice of Lebanese or Egyptian, but have wanted to try Egyptian forever. They are made with fava beans rather than chickpeas, so they are green. They are also more mushy than crumbly. I didn’t find these nearly as flavourful as the best Lebanese or Syrian chickpea falafel I’ve had, but they had good flavour. I wouldn’t order them again, though, given a choice.

The salad was simple and perfect, with very fresh and crisp veg, a tangy lemon vinaigrette, and lots of salty feta.

The hummus was pretty basis, but the high quality olive oil that actually tasted like olives really dressed it up. The pita was very fresh and the perfect mop for both hummus and garlic sauce.

The chicken was moist and flavourful, although I did get a few bits of gristle. Really, it was just a conduit for garlic sauce, which did not disappoint!

The restaurant was doing a brisk trade at lunch today. I would like to go try the Zarafanos location as reviews for it are good while those for the Cerrillos location are middling, so I’d like to see if they are that different. Regardless, I had a dang good and satisfying meal and now know there’s no excuse for not being able to find decent and flavourful Mediterranean food south and west of the Montreal-Ottawa corridor! Santa Fe residents are dang lucky!